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Academic Collaboration

Citescore vs Impact Factor Detailed Comparison

Compare CiteScore vs Impact Factor to understand their differences, strengths, and how each metric evaluates academic journals.

Sep 7, 2025

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In academic collaboration, researchers often face the challenge of evaluating the quality and impact of journals. This becomes crucial when selecting where to publish or which sources to cite. Two commonly used metrics for this purpose are Citescore and Impact Factor. Understanding the differences between them can help researchers make informed decisions and improve their academic collaboration efforts.

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Table of Content

Importance of Journal Matrices

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1. Guiding Journal Selection

Choosing the right journal for your research can be a daunting task, especially with the plethora of options available. Journal metrics serve as a beacon, guiding researchers to select journals that align with their goals for quality, reach, and influence. By examining citation-based scores, authors can pinpoint reputable journals that will provide their work with the visibility and recognition it deserves. This not only helps in avoiding predatory journals but also ensures that the research is disseminated through credible channels. Furthermore, these metrics facilitate comparisons between journals across various disciplines, enabling researchers to make informed decisions about where to publish their work.

2. Advancing Academic Careers

The impact of publishing in well-ranked journals extends beyond academic recognition; it has tangible effects on career advancement. Institutions and funding bodies frequently use journal metrics as benchmarks when assessing a researcher’s accomplishments. A strong publication record in high-metric journals can enhance prospects for grant approvals, promotions, and new job opportunities. Understanding the weight these metrics carry can help researchers strategically choose journals that will bolster their professional trajectories.

3. Reflecting Journal Reputation

Journal metrics have become synonymous with prestige and credibility. A high Impact Factor or CiteScore often indicates that a journal is well-respected within the academic community. This association influences researchers’ publishing decisions, as many seek to affiliate themselves with reputable journals. The widespread consideration of these metrics in the selection process underscores their significance in shaping the academic publishing landscape.

4. Types of Metrics and Their Value

Different metrics capture distinct aspects of a journal’s influence:

Citation-based measures, such as Impact Factor and CiteScore, quantify how often articles are cited, reflecting the journal’s academic impact.
Field-normalized metrics like SNIP adjust for disciplinary variations in citation behavior, allowing for fairer comparisons across fields.
Prestige-weighted indicators, including SJR and Eigenfactor, assess the quality of citations by giving more weight to those from esteemed journals.
Alternative metrics, or Altmetrics, track attention from non-academic sources like social media, news outlets, and policy documents, providing a broader view of impact.

5. Limitations and Responsible Use

While journal metrics offer valuable insights, they are not without limitations. They assess journals as a whole and do not evaluate the quality of individual articles or authors. Variations in citation practices across fields can also affect the comparability of metrics.

Additionally, the distribution of citations is often skewed, with a small number of highly cited papers inflating averages. Overreliance on metrics can lead to undesirable behaviors aimed at artificially boosting scores. To mitigate these risks, it is essential to use metrics responsibly and in conjunction with qualitative assessments.

Citescore vs Impact Factor Detailed Comparison

man working on laptop - Citescore vs Impact Factor

1. Data Sources & Coverage: The Backbone of the Metrics

Impact Factor relies on the Web of Science database, curated by Clarivate, for its calculations. It focuses on articles and reviews published within the last two years that are considered "citable." On the flip side, CiteScore taps into Scopus, a broader database managed by Elsevier. This allows it to include a wider array of document types, such as conference papers, book chapters, and even data papers, all within a four-year timeframe. This difference in data sources and coverage fundamentally shapes how these metrics evaluate journal impact.

2. Citation Window & Document Types: Time and Scope Matter

The Impact Factor evaluates citations within a two-year window, exclusively considering articles and reviews. This narrow focus may overlook significant contributions, especially in fields where research takes time to gain traction. CiteScore extends the citation window to four years and broadens the scope to capture a variety of scholarly outputs. By doing so, it aims to provide a more comprehensive picture of a journal's influence over time.

3. Calculation Method & Updates: Averages with a Twist

Both Impact Factor and CiteScore calculate an average of citations per publication within their respective windows. However, CiteScore often releases its results earlier, sometimes including projected values. This can be advantageous for those seeking timely information but may also introduce a degree of uncertainty until final figures are confirmed.

4. Correlations & Discrepancies: Similar Yet Different

Research shows a high correlation between Impact Factor and CiteScore, with coefficients around 0.92. Despite this, their rankings of journals can differ significantly. Only about 35% of journals fall into the same quartiles when assessed by both metrics. This discrepancy highlights the importance of understanding the nuances of each metric before concluding on journal quality.

5. Strengths & Limitations: The Good and the Bad

Impact Factor boasts a long history and widespread recognition, making it a convenient shorthand for journal influence. However, it's susceptible to distortion from a few highly cited papers and may disadvantage fields with slower citation patterns. CiteScore addresses some of these issues with its broader coverage and longer citation window, but it is not without its own limitations. It's vulnerable to outliers and depends on the regional and disciplinary coverage of Scopus, which may not be uniform.

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7 Important Journal Metrics

Journal metrics are used to assess and track the influence and impact of academic journals. They help researchers determine where to publish their work and evaluate the quality of the journals they read. Here are some of the most common journal metrics:

1. Otio

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Create draft outputs using the sources you’ve collected.

2. The h-Index

The h-index is an author-level metric that rates performance based on career publications, as measured by the lifetime number of citations each article receives. The measurement is dependent on quantity (number of publications) and quality (number of citations). To manually calculate your h-index, organize articles in descending order based on the number of times they have been cited.

The h-index reflects the number of articles in addition to the number of citations per article. A h-index of 12 would represent 12 published papers by an author that each had 12 or more citations.

3. Eigenfactor® Score and Article Influence® Score

Like the Impact Factor, the Eigenfactor uses citation data to assess and track the influence of a journal in relation to other journals. (Available for JCR years 2007 and later). The Eigenfactor Score calculation is based on the number of times articles from the journal published in the past five years have been cited in the JCR year.

Still, it also considers which journals have contributed these citations, so that highly cited journals will influence the network more than less cited journals. References from one article in a journal to another article from the same journal are removed, so that Eigenfactor Scores are not influenced by journal self-citation.

The Article Influence establishes the average influence of a journal's articles over the first five years after publication. It is calculated by dividing a journal’s Eigenfactor Score by the number of articles in the journal, standardized as a fraction of all articles in all publications.

This measure is nearly equivalent to the 5-Year Journal Impact Factor as it is a ratio of a journal’s citation influence to the size of the journal’s article contribution over a period of five years. A score greater than 1.00 indicates that each article in the journal has above-average influence; a score under 1.00 indicates that each article in the journal has below-average influence.

4. SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)

SJR is a measure of the scientific influence of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from (developed from the information contained in Scopus).

5. Eigenfactor

Another metric that aims to rank the importance of a journal is Eigenfactor. It evaluates a journal’s influence based on its presence in academic networks, rather than just counting citations.

To put it another way, it is dependent on the work of a journal being cited in other respectable journals. The greater the Eigenfactor value, the closer the network is. It’s determined by an algorithm that ranks journals according to these criteria. This calculation is done over five years, and citations within a journal are not taken into account.

6. Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)

Using Scopus data, NIP measures the number of citations received by articles in the journal to the number of citations expected for the topic field. The SNIP report is released twice a year, covering three years.

The amount of citations per publication in a journal is divided by the field’s citation potential.

The citation potential of a journal is measured by the number of articles that cite it. This indicates that if an article receives a citation in a subject where citations are few, the citation will be valued higher.

SNIP normalizes its sources to make cross-disciplinary comparisons. In reality, this implies that a citation from a publication with a lengthy list of references is worthless.

Citations from publications classified as “non-citing sources” are not considered. Trade journals, along with a few arts and humanities titles,s are among them. It is based on the data in the Scopus database. As a result, specific references will be disregarded.

7. Altmetric

Companies often calculate Altmetric scores. They can’t be calculated manually for this.

Depending on the company and the information they use, several sources are used in altmetrics calculations. However, a high altmetric score often implies that an item has received a lot of attention, as well as what the company has decided to be “quality” attention (i.e., a news post might be more valuable than a Twitter mention).

Keep in mind that just because something gets a lot of attention doesn’t mean it’s essential or even significant. That’s why combining altmetrics with impact factors might be beneficial.

How to Use Journal Matrices

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1. Selecting a Journal that Aligns with Your Research

The first step to effectively using journal metrics is to find a journal that matches your research. Look at the journal's reach and audience to see if it aligns with your area of study. Metrics like Impact Factor or CiteScore can help you determine how widely a journal's articles are read and cited. For example, a high Impact Factor could indicate that the journal has broad visibility in your field and could be a good fit for your research.

In addition to considering the prestige of a journal, it's also essential to balance this with practicality. Top-tier journals can be highly competitive and may have long review times. In some cases, it is more beneficial to publish in a Q2 or Q3 journal with a good CiteScore or SJR, as these journals offer faster publication times while still providing visibility for your work.

2. Assessing Journal Quality and Reputation

When evaluating a journal, there are several metrics you can use to assess its quality and reputation. The Impact Factor measures the average number of citations per article in the past two years and can help make quick comparisons between journals. However, it should not be the only factor you consider.

CiteScore uses a four-year window and includes more document types, making it a helpful metric for understanding a journal's longer-term influence. SJR (SCImago Journal Rank) weighs citations based on the prestige of the citing journals, giving you a sense of the journal's influence network. SNIP (Source-Normalized Impact per Paper) adjusts for differences in citation practices across disciplines. You must work in a field with naturally lower or higher citation counts.

3. Comparing and Benchmarking Journals

Journal metrics should be used to compare journals within the same field rather than across unrelated disciplines. Citation behaviors can vary significantly between fields, so it's essential to make sure you're comparing apples to apples. You should also look at trends over time to see if a journal's metrics are rising, stable, or declining. Consistent growth can be a sign of increasing influence.

It's also a good idea to examine citation distributions, if available, to see whether a journal's impact is spread across many articles or skewed by a few highly cited papers.

4. Understanding Broader Impact

In addition to traditional citation-based metrics, it's essential to consider a journal's broader impact. Altmetrics, which track mentions in news, policy, and social media, can provide valuable insight into a journal's real-world influence. This is especially important for researchers working in applied sciences, public health, or policy-related fields.

Some tools also track policy citations or media mentions, which can indicate a journal's societal or practical impact beyond academia.

5. Supporting Your Career Development

Publishing in journals with strong metrics can help support your career development. Many institutions and funding agencies consider these metrics as indicators of quality when making decisions about tenure, promotion, and grant applications. However, it's important to note that some committees are shifting towards evaluating the content and contribution of your work rather than just the reputation of the journals you publish in. Nonetheless, journal metrics often play a role in making a good first impression.

6. Using Metrics Responsibly

It's crucial to use journal metrics responsibly. Don't use them to judge individual articles or researchers. An article published in a high-impact journal is not automatically of high quality, and conversely, an article in a lower-ranked journal can still be highly influential. Avoid comparing metrics across different fields without proper normalization, and be aware of potential gaming and manipulation of metrics. Follow guidelines such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) and the Leiden Manifesto, which advocate for using metrics as part of a broader, qualitative evaluation process.

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Citescore vs Impact Factor Detailed Comparison

Table of Content

Importance of Journal Matrices

1. Guiding Journal Selection

2. Advancing Academic Careers

3. Reflecting Journal Reputation

4. Types of Metrics and Their Value

5. Limitations and Responsible Use

Citescore vs Impact Factor Detailed Comparison

1. Data Sources & Coverage: The Backbone of the Metrics

2. Citation Window & Document Types: Time and Scope Matter

3. Calculation Method & Updates: Averages with a Twist

4. Correlations & Discrepancies: Similar Yet Different

5. Strengths & Limitations: The Good and the Bad

Related Reading

7 Important Journal Metrics

1. Otio

2. The h-Index

3. Eigenfactor® Score and Article Influence® Score

4. SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)

5. Eigenfactor

6. Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)

7. Altmetric

How to Use Journal Matrices

1. Selecting a Journal that Aligns with Your Research

2. Assessing Journal Quality and Reputation

3. Comparing and Benchmarking Journals

4. Understanding Broader Impact

5. Supporting Your Career Development

6. Using Metrics Responsibly

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Supercharge Your Researching Ability With Otio — Try Otio for Free Today

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